Policies and Procedures

Learn more about the College's admission policies and procedures:

Background Check

An acceptable background check is required as a condition of admission to the graduate programs in Health Care Management and Nursing and in the Dietetic Internship program. Applicants will be given information regarding how to obtain the specific mandatory background check required by her/his program.

Applicants are responsible for completing and paying for a background check(s) as a condition of admission and also as required under renewal timelines.

Applicants should contact their programs for full policy, requirements and procedures.

Admission Decisions

Approval to take graduate courses is conveyed to an applicant in a letter from the Office of Admission. This letter will state the student's official status as either a matriculated or a non-matriculated student.

Student Status Categories

Students can receive provisional acceptance into a master's degree program, until they have fulfilled all conditions stipulated in their letters of acceptance.

Full admission is granted upon the satisfactory completion of the stipulated conditions and in accordance with College policy

A certification student is one who is accepted into a certificate program of study. The certificate program may lead to a College of Saint Elizabeth certificate or fulfill requirements for state or national certification in such areas as education or dietetics.

Unless also pursuing a degree program, a certification student is classified as non-matriculated.

A visiting student is one from another educational institution whose purpose is to transfer credit back to the home institution and is classified as non-matriculated. A visiting student who holds a baccalaureate degree completes an application prior to receiving approval to take coursework.

A special student has completed a baccalaureate degree and is one who is enrolled in graduate coursework and has not declared a major area or made a formal application to a specific program. A special student is classified as non-matriculated and must follow complete admission process once the decision is made to apply to one of the graduate programs leading to a master's degree. Special student status is subject to departmental approval.

Transfer of Credit

An applicant may receive in transfer up to a maximum of nine credits of graduate coursework from institutions other than the College of Saint Elizabeth. Refer to the requirements of your program to determine if transfer credit is accepted. Courses in the Multidisciplinary Core Curriculum must be taken at the College of Saint Elizabeth.

Since at least three quarters of the degree credit hour requirements must be met in residence at the College of Saint Elizabeth, specific credits and numbers of credits accepted for transfer must be approved by the graduate course of study coordinator to which the student has been matriculated. Transfer credits must, in the judgment of the program director, be comparable or integrate well, both in terms of content and quality, with courses in the graduate program.

All credits accepted for transfer must be taken at the graduate level. Post-baccalaureate level courses generally are unacceptable and must be specifically justified in the student's program of study.

All credits transferred must be from accredited colleges. Extension credits are ordinarily not acceptable. All credits transferred must be equivalent to the grade of "B" or higher. Generally, courses taken on a pass/fail basis are not accepted except where there is written documentation attached to the requested transfer credit that states the institutional policy to only grant passing credit for grades of "B" or higher in graduate coursework.

Acceptable transfer credit cannot previously have been applied to a degree. Credits used to complete one degree shall not be used again for credit toward another graduate degree or certificate, except in the case of a second master's degree at the College in which the student has completed the multidisciplinary core course MC 626 Ethical Issues in Human Services Leadership, which is directly applicable to the second degree.

In order to transfer credit, an official transcript bearing the registrar's signature and seal of the college, along with course descriptions, must be submitted to the graduate course of study coordinator for the evaluation process.

A student who wishes to transfer to another graduate program at the College must file a formal application with the Office of Admission (see Change of Program below for further information). The number of credits to be transferred into the new program will be determined by the new graduate course of study coordinator. Grades from courses accepted through inter-program transfers will be computed into the student's cumulative grade point average.

Transfer credit will be recorded on the transcript when the student is accepted to matriculated status for the master's degree.

Approval of transfer credit must be granted within the calendar year time limit allowed for completion of the master's degree described in this catalog.

Matriculation Policy

Full admission (acceptance as a matriculated graduate student) requires approval of the appropriate graduate program. Formal notification of full admission will come from the appropriate graduate department through the Office of Admission.

Students with a baccalaureate degree may receive approval from the graduate course of study coordinator to begin taking graduate courses before they are fully admitted.

Students seeking to earn a graduate degree at the College of Saint Elizabeth may not take more than 10 credits in that degree program (maximum of 9 credits for graduate education programs) prior to admission as a matriculated student. In the event that students take more than 10 credits, such credits cannot count toward degree requirements. For program specific matriculation information, refer to the individual department.

Second Master's Degree

A student may pursue two master's degrees at the College of Saint Elizabeth. This may be in process concurrently or sequentially.

Only one course, MC 626, Ethical Issues in Human Services Leadership, may count as three credits for both master's degrees.

In the event that other courses are required for both degrees, the credits may only apply to one degree. For the second degree, the student is required to complete additional graduate coursework as determined by the program director.

Change of Program

A student who wishes to change from one graduate degree program at the College to another will be expected to meet the current admission requirements for the new program. The student is required to complete the formal application process for admission to the new program. A recommendation from the student's original program director must accompany the application which will be reviewed and acted upon by the graduate course of study coordinator.

Students transferring from one program to another will be obliged to complete all the requirements of the new program.

Who We Are

Founded in 1899 by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, the College of Saint Elizabeth has a strong tradition of concern for the poor, for developing leadership in a spirit of service and social responsibility, and a commitment to the promotion of women as full partners in society.